After spending over a year in a federal correctional institution, “Weev” Auernheimer’s conviction has been vacated by an appeals court. The U.S. government may try him again and critics of his prosecution hope Auernheimer’s plight will underscore the need to put an end to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Hackers backed directly by the Iranian government “are targeting critical infrastructure and developing the ability to cause serious damage to the United States’ power grid,” Dana Liebelson reports at Mother Jones.

A military action that was sold to Americans as short and inexpensive may come to cost us $3.7 trillion; Sen. Rob Portman has come out in support of same-sex marriage thanks to his gay son, but doesn’t seem interested in women’s rights despite having a daughter; meanwhile, the hacker who brought you the Bush family’s emails has exposed communications between a White House adviser and the Clintons. These discoveries and more after the jump.

Chuck Hagel’s confirmation hearings to become secretary of defense have raised questions about the Republican Party’s ability to conduct U.S. foreign policy worthy of a major international player; Hillary Clinton may be responsible for the decline in the use of “Hillary” as a baby name; meanwhile, although President Obama is quite adept at Internet use, his tendency toward waging a “cyber war” is a deficient approach to online security. These discoveries and more after the jump.

Anonymous hackers gained access to the usernames, email addresses and passwords associated with a quarter of a million Twitter accounts before the company noticed “unusual access patterns” across its network Friday, The Guardian reports.

U.S. authorities have arrested 20-year-old Raynaldo Rivera of Tempe, Ariz., an alleged member of the hacking group LulzSec, on suspicion of hacking computer systems belonging to Sony Pictures Europe. If convicted, he could face 15 years in prison.

Lebanese expatriate Nadim Kobeissi, 21, is determined to “subvert governments and frustrate marketers” with a cat- and code-themed website that allows users to exchange messages and files that can’t be read by anyone but the sender and receiver.

The Federal Communications Commission said Monday that it will investigate San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit because of its decision to interrupt cellphone service on Aug. 11 before a protest planned for that day. The interruption lasted three hours.

In this age of terrorism and anxiety, we sometimes let loose a little too freely with loaded words like “attack.” Take the case of LulzSec, the humorous hacker collective that brought down the CIA’s World Factbook, penetrated PBS and resurrected Tupac. (more)

The city of Orlando, Fla., home to amusement parks, fancy houses and an underachieving basketball team, has been arresting people for feeding the homeless without a permit. This got the attention of the hacker collective Anonymous, which has threatened to shut down a different Orlando-themed website every day. (more)

Lulz Security is no more. The humorous hackers who attacked targets including PBS and the CIA released a statement announcing that “Our planned 50 day cruise has expired, and we must now sail into the distance. ...” (more)

“Less than impressed” with “Frontline’s” “WikiSecrets” episode, a hacker or group of hackers called LulzSechijacked the PBS.org website late Sunday night, posting, among other things, a fake news story claiming Tupac Shakur is alive and living in New Zealand. If you caught “WikiSecrets,” you might sympathize with the crusading hacker(s). (more)

Internal documents of a California computer security firm obtained by pro-WikiLeaks hackers have been made available online, suggesting various ways companies can help undermine the whistle-blowing website as it prepares to release material that could prove damaging to Bank of America and other financial entities.

Google already threatened to quit China over a network attack originating from that country, but it seems the Internet giant was shaken up enough to call the National Security Agency (of spying-on-Americans fame) for assistance. (continued)

A significant Internet “denial of service” attack Thursday directed at popular Web sites such as Facebook and Twitter may have been carried out or instigated by the Russian government in an attempt to silence a dissident blogger in Georgia. At least so says the blogger.

Hollywood has given us many a laptop-wielding hacker who causes explosions, blackouts and mayhem with a few malicious keystrokes, but such scenarios may not be confined to preposterous action flicks anymore. The Wall Street Journal reports that cyberspies from China and Russia have infiltrated the U.S. electrical grid, mapped it and left a little something behind.